Information in this post was obtained from HubSpot, Social Media Today, and Content Marketing Institute.
When you think of video games what do you think of? Is it just a hobby? Video games as we know it have become a sustainable career in the past few years. Today, video games and streaming are bigger than they ever have been. With the result of such a massive uphold within this type of space, people not only play these games to enjoy but broadcast them live to thousands of viewers to watch. In this blog, we will cover what Twitch is and how brands market using streamers, sites, and games.
What Are Video Game Live Streaming Platforms?
There are many gaming live stream sites including YouTube, FacebookGaming, and Twitch. Twitch is currently the biggest and most well-known platform for online video game live streams. On all of these platforms, users can either use the site to broadcast live videos or to view other people's streams. The streamer usually gives live gameplay commentary as they broadcast to an audience that "chats" in the text sidebar of the page. With this knowledge, why have big named companies started to use video game platforms like these to market?
How Brands Have Used Twitch to Market
With 30 million active daily users and 140 million monthly active users, Twitch has come to the eye of major companies. With this surprising rise in numbers over the last few years, comes a new area to be able to market to. From HubSpot, here are 3 of the 11 ways brands you know have used Twitch and the marketing tactics used other than just running ads.
1. PepsiCo
Tactic: Sponsorship Marketing
To promote a limited-time Brisk Product, PepsiCo sponsored a video game tournament for the game Rocket League. Although company-sponsored tournaments aren't a new phenomenon, their sponsorship allowed them more control over most sponsorships.
Ads for Brisk ran throughout the tournament and a Brisk-themed car was released in-game for players to use. Doing this got them a continuous ad of that being played inside the game.
2. The Hershey Company
Tactic: Influencer Marketing
To promote Reese's Pieces chocolate bar, Hershey partnered with multiple influencers, like Ninja and DrLupo, who have millions of followers on Twitch. During the campaign,
millions of people were introduced to the new candy bar and their favorite streamers enjoyed them live for them to watch.
3. Lexus
Tactic: Content Marketing
This luxury car maker partnered with video game streamer Fuslie for the company's "All In" Twitch campaign. During this, thousands of Twitch users voted on how to customize and modify the new 2021 Lexus IS sedan. The users wound up designing the ultimate vehicle for gamers.
Online Content Marketing
Content is believed to act almost like a brand's currency. It can demonstrate relevance and can bring brands closer to customers through interfaces like chat voice and video. What comes along with an oversaturated market of ads is the need for more strategic approaches when it comes to building a foundation with your customer that includes branching out into different mediums like video game live streaming. Here is a list from Content Marketing Institute to strategically evolve brands communication:
Rearticulate your brand story
Define your verbal strategy
Engage through signature content opportunities
Build relationships on other channels
Operationalize for the digital age
The Future of Gaming / Live Stream Marketing
The truth to this is, that the future is coming and it is coming faster than expected. The social metaverse company, Meta, is now taking it to the next level. Meta is actively being developed by Facebook as a new sense of Virtual Reality. From this article in Social Media Today, Facebook Gaming states:
“Today, we’re excited to announce our first investments in Play Watch Connect: a new framework to help us deliver more immersive and engaging social experiences that build a community around games on Facebook. Products in the new Play Watch Connect framework will bridge three pillars together — playing games, watching gaming videos, and connecting with others around games — to create richer experiences between people on our platform.”
This type of new interactive opportunity could be able to facilitate new interactive marketing and content that we have never seen before.
Resources
Carmicheal, K. (2022, August 9). What Is Twitch? How Do Brands Use It? [web log]. Retrieved September 19, 2022, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitch
Hutchinson, A. (2021, December 7). Meta Adds New Interactive Elements to Facebook Gaming to Help Build Community Engagement [web log]. Retrieved from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-adds-new-interactive-elements-to-facebook-gaming-to-help-build-communi/611053/
Zucker, M. (2018, April 6). 5 Steps to strategically Reboot Your Brand's Content Marketing [web log]. Retrieved September 19, 2022, from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/brands-content-marketing/
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